It is very likely that the people who are pirating the games are the same people that wouldn't be able to buy the game in the first place, or who are unaware of how well/poorly the game will play and forgot that demos exist. I do appreciate Lionhead's rationale in that the only way to stop pirates is to just talk to one and help them understand why this is a problem. At least they aren't trying to cover up everything in some crazy anti-piracy DRM that ends up causing more of a hassle than it's worth it to play the game. Of course, this is why some people champion systems like Steam, where it is much harder to pirate games.

The bash quote has been around since about 2005-2006 as far as I remember.